Edward Hardwicke

Edward Cedric Hardwicke (7 August 1932 – 16 May 2011) was an English actor who had a career on the stage and on-screen. He was best known for playing Captain Pat Grant in Colditz (1972–73), and Dr. Watson in Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes (1986–94).

Hardwicke was born in London, the son of actors Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Helena Pickard. He began his film career in Hollywood at the age of 10, in Victor Fleming's film A Guy Named Joe which starred Spencer Tracy. He returned to England, attended Stowe School, and fulfilled his national service as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and trained as an actor.

Hardwicke played at the Bristol Old Vic, the Oxford Playhouse and the Nottingham Playhouse before in 1964 joining Laurence Olivier's National Theatre. He performed regularly there for seven years. He appeared with Olivier in William Shakespeare's Othello and Ibsen's The Master Builder. He also appeared in Peter Shaffer's The Royal Hunt of the Sun (with Robert Stephens), Charley's Aunt, Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Congreve's The Way of the World, Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear (directed by Jacques Charon of the Comédie Française), The Crucible, Luigi Pirandello's The Rules of the Game, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot and George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. He returned to the National in 1977 for a production of Feydeau's The Lady from Maxim's.

In 1973 he played Dr Astrov in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya opposite Peter O'Toole at the Bristol Old Vic, and had an uncredited role as Charles Calthrop in the film The Day of the Jackal. In 1975 he appeared in Frederick Lonsdale's On Approval at the Haymarket Theatre, and in 1976 he played Sir Robert Chiltern in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, a production with which he toured Canada.

In 1993 he played the role of C. S Lewis's brother Warnie opposite Anthony Hopkins in Shadowlands, directed by Richard Attenborough.

In 1995 he appeared in Ian McKellen's updated film of Richard III. His father, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, had appeared in the Laurence Olivier 1955 film version.

In 2001 he played Arthur Winslow in The Winslow Boy at the Chichester Festival Theatre, a role played by his father in the 1948 film.

Hardwicke had a small role in "The Greek Interpreter" episode of the 1968 series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes featuring Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes.